The Golden Circle/Alumni Awards Luncheon

Friday, November 4, noon, Arizona Inn, Tucson Room
Open to: All alumni of 50 years or more

The Golden Circle luncheon will include the induction of members of the Class of 1955. We also will celebrate five Alumni Association Award recipients:

• Howard Beaver (presented posthumously)
• Distinguished Citizen Award Hon. Ted Downing
• Public Service Award Kim Gunn
• Distinguished Citizen Award Ann Young
• Leo B. Hart Humanitarian Award College of Education Alumni Council
• Award of Excellence

The Erasmus Circle Coffee Reception

Kathy Short

Saturday, November 5, 9:30 a.m., International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature (in the basement of the College of Education Building)
Hosted by: Members of The Erasmus Circle
Open to: Prospective members of The Erasmus Circle and booklovers everywhere

Learn about the international collection and meet authors David Christiana and Joan Sandin. The International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature is the largest collection in the United States, and it’s housed right here beneath the Education Building. In fact, there’s only one larger collection in the world, the International Youth Library, in a medieval castle just west of Munich.

While the basement at the College of Education could hardly be compared to a castle, what’s inside holds the same clout and mystique. “I wanted to create a collection representative of the best books available in the United States and around the world,” says Kathy Short, professor in the college’s Department of Language, Reading, and Culture and the driving force behind the collection, used as a teaching and research library.

Learn more about our featured authors below.

For more information about The Erasmus Circle Coffee Reception, contact Julie Johnson at 520-621-3413 or johnsoju@u.arizona.edu .

Open House for Alumni and Friends

Saturday, November 5, 10:30 a.m., International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature (in the basement of the College of Education Building)
Open to: All alumni and friends

Now, here’s an event you don’t want to miss. Learn about our amazing international collection of children’s and adolescent literature. This hidden gem is the largest collection in the U.S.! And you’ll have the chance to meet our featured authors, David Christiana and Joan Sandin.

Here’s more about these special authors:

David Christiana, illustrator of the just-released book, Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, has illustrated more than 20 books for children, four of which he authored, including the innovative White Nineteens. His work has been reviewed to acclaim by The New York Times Book Review, Kirkus Reviews, People magazine, and Publishers Weekly. Christiana teaches visual communication at the UA and is the author and/or illustrator of 16 major children’s publications and has participated in more than 40 exhibitions.

Christiana attended Parsons School of Design in New York in 1981. In 1982, he received a bachelor’s degree from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. He holds a master’s degree from Syracuse University. You might have seen one of his illustrations on the cover of the Arizona Alumnus magazine.

Joan Sandin graduated from the UA with a bachelor’s degree in art and has been illustrating, writing, and translating children’s books ever since. Altogether, she has worked on more than 100 books, published in the U.S. and Sweden. This year, Arizona’s Governor Janet Napolitano is giving away 84,000 copies of Coyote School News to Arizona’s fourth-graders. Other books by Sandin include The Long Way to a New Land, The Long Way Westward, and Pioneer Bear. Sandin is the winner of the 2004 Judy Goddard/Libraries Limited Arizona Children’s Author/Illustrator Award.

Want to know more about Coyote School News and the real story that prompted the book?
Go to digital.library.arizona.edu/cowpuncher to view the online Little Cowpuncher exhibit with issues of the newspapers, pages about the school, the teacher, and the area, plus links to the UA Press books, Woman in Levi’s and Nine Months is a Year at Baboquívari School by Eulalia Bourne.

Go to littlecowpuncher.Arizona.edu to see video interviews with seven of the former little cowpunchers, read transcripts, and scroll through a photo gallery.

The UofA Bookstore will be on site with selections by our featured authors for sale and signing. All proceeds benefit the International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature.

For more information about the Open House, contact Julie Johnson at 520-621-3413 or johnsoju@u.arizona.edu.

College of Education Alumni Council Homecoming Tent on the UA Mall

Saturday, Nov. 5, 11 a.m.
Open to: All alumni and friends

The College of Education Tent is the place to be! Crafts for kids, face painting, a raffle for a beautiful, handmade literacy lap quilt, puppet-making, duck-pool game, and a spectacular wheel-of-fortune for pint-size prizes. You can find our tent across from the Eddie Lynch Pavilion and McKale Center on the east end of the UA Mall near Campbell Avenue.

11 – 11:30 a.m.
Curious George himself will visit with little ones — bring your cameras!

11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. or so
Rockin’ Chair Celebrity Readers will read aloud from their favorite children’s books in the cozy, cushioned corner.

Here’s the lineup:

Susie Huhn
Executive director of Casa de los Niños
Class of ’79

David Christiana
UA professor of media arts
Illustrator of Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg and other children’s books

Joan Sandin
Author and illustrator of Coyote School News, the book Governor Napolitano chose this year to give to 84,000 Arizona fourth-graders
Class of ’64

Johnjay van Es and Randy Stein (“the intern”) of KRQ Radio
Randy Stein: Class of ’05

Maria Miranda
Teacher, Davis Bilingual Elementary School
Class of ’78

Richard Miranda
Tucson Police Chief
Class of ’74

For more information about the College of Education Tent on the Mall, contact Ishara Smith at 520-621-2345 or ishara@email.arizona.edu.

Other College of Education News

I Did Not Know That!
Filling a Need on the Navajo Reservation

UA student Kim Peralto-Gee observes how Dale Joe, who has retinitis pigmentosa, reads Braille.

Jane Erin, a professor in Special Education, Rehabilitation, and School Psychology, was concerned about the need for teachers of students with visual impairments on the Navajo reservation.

She and some of her SERSP colleagues decided to do something about it. They wrote a grant, and set aside preparation time and funding for 10 teachers of indigenous backgrounds. Last January, the vision specialization program — called the Navajo Preparation Project — received federal funding to prepare teachers at the University of Arizona and on the Navajo reservation.

Ten students were identified, interviewed, and accepted. Nine of the 10 students are Native American, and one student has been a long-time resident of Northern Arizona working with Native American students.

As part of their coursework, students met an adult with retinitis pigmentosa to learn about the educational services he received as an adolescent on the reservation.

Students also visited the Chinle Hospital Eye Clinic and spent time with two optometrists, learning about eye diseases and procedures for diagnosis. Each student got to be a “patient” to experience a complete eye examination. Students will interact with two families from Piñon and Chinle who have children with albinism and retinitis pigmentosa, the most common eye diseases on the Navajo reservation. As part of the program, students will learn to interview families and do assessment of the children’s abilities to use vision for daily tasks.

The project will include a summer camp for students with visual impairment in 2007. Through camp experiences, students will earn internship credit and plan recreation and leisure, sports, and arts and crafts activities for children with visual impairment.

Spanning across five years, the project will lead to state certification in the area of visual impairment.

If you would like more information, contact Irene Topor, program coordinator for the Navajo Preparation Project, at 520-626-3863 or ilt@u.arizona.edu.

Accolades & Accomplishments

Disability Research and Policy: Current Perspectives, a book written by Special Education, Rehabilitation, and School Psychology Professor Richard Morris, was recently published. Several professors from SERSP wrote one of the chapters (“Philosophical congruence in health care, disability research, and policy”), including Amos Sales, Charlene Kampfe, and Les McAllan.

Language, Reading, and Culture graduate student, Perpie Liwanag, received a grant from the Underrepresented Graduate Student Final Project Fund. This will assist Perpie in the completion of her doctoral dissertation. Congratulations, Perpie!

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